CHAP. III.

IT Fell-out that some short Time after the Broaching of the Pretended Popish Plot,* One Boulter, a Bookseller, brought me Tong's Royal Martyr, for a License. I could not Pass it, and the Bookseller went Mumbling away with a kind of Menace betwixt his Teeth, for the Refusal. Upon This, I went and told Tong at Whitehall, that I could not give it an Imprimatur, and so Pointed him out, (over and above Certain Scandalous Re∣flexions, and Historical Mistakes) to some Unlucky Hints in the Preface, that, People, I said, would be apt to take Offence at.

You tell the World, said I, that you have with Great Care Drawn-up the History of the Old Popish Plot,* (meaning the Bus'ness of Andreas ab Habernfeld) and that shewing it to Dr. Otes, who very much Approv'd of the Draught, You did as Good as tell him, [Titus, it were worth the while to know if This Plot does not go on still: Wherefore do you go, and put your self among the Jesuites, and see whether it does or No.] You say further, that Dr Otes Page  50 Did go among them, pretending to be One of them, and that when he came back, he told you that the Bus'ness went-on, and that it was no New Plot, but the Old One Continued. [Well, (says Dr. Tong) All This is True, and where's the Offence?] So I up and told him, that it might be look'd upon as a Strange Councell, either to Give, or to Take. The Advice Given, said I, is This; [Titus, do you go over, and pretend to be a Papist, Take All their Oaths and Tests, Ioyn with them in an Idolatrous Worship, (for so Tong Reputed it) and Swear your self to the Devil through Thick and Thin, only to see whether it be Cross or Pile. This seems to Me, to be the Advice Given, and the Following of This Ad∣vice upon Fore-thought, and Consideration, may be taken for as Extraordinary a Resolution. The Doctors Answer was to This Purpose: God Allmighty will do his Work by his Own Way, and Method.

This Account was Printed in 1681. in [The Sham∣mer Shamm'd. p. 8.] together with several Letters, and Papers of Young Tong's, Confirming every Particular; and though they were Publish'd in the very Heat of the Republican Conspiracy, and my Name at Length to the Edition, there was not One Syllable Objected to the Truth of it. There was as little said too, in Excep∣tion to an Advertisement of May. 15. 1682. Obs. 138. Vol. 1. Wherein was Notify'd, that Simpson Tong En∣deavour'd to Destroy the Credit of Otes, and of his Evi∣dence; and that if any Man would Prosecute him, I my self would find Materials to Proceed upon.

Th•re are Five or Six Passages in the Matter a∣bove, that upon the Tacking of them together, will Naturally leade us into the Train of the Story that I am now upon.

Page  51First, It was an Odd kind of Bus'ness,* Tong's Stumbling upon the Old Popish Plot of Habernfeld; which was only the finding out of a Modell to make Another Plot by.

2ly, What did he shew the Draught of it to Otes for, but to set him his Lesson?

3ly, There's Otes'es Approbation of it. As who should say; I'm of your Mind whatever it is.

4ly, Tong's sending Otes away among the Iesuits, to see if the Old Plot (of allmost Forty Year stan∣ding) went on still or Not. Now This was not so much to Tell him what he was to Look for, as what he was to Find.

5ly, Consider Otes'es Adventure upon That Er∣rand. The Blockhead went first for Spain, and after a while came back again, not One jot the Wiser-Tong finding that he was not Thoroughly possest of the Hint, was forc'd to be a little Plainer with him; and not only Advis'd him to go Over-Sea again; but gave him the very Reason, and his Business. i. e. [If he could but get the Names of the Jesuits; Learn their Ways; and make Acquaintance among them, the People might be Easily stirr'd up to Fear Popery, and it would be the Making of him for ever.] Now This Making of him, Tong call'd putting him in a way. This shall be Expounded by and by.

6ly. 'Tis Remarkable how Otes Edify'd upon the Second Handling, by the Discovery he made to Tong at his Next Return. i. e. [That the Present Plot was No New Plot, but the Old One Continu'd.] So that by This Reck'ning, Habernfelds Plot Sunk in 1640. and Came up again, in 1677. and 1678; after it had run under-ground the Better Part of Two Kings Reigns.

Page  52These Circumstances are the very Links of the Chain. Tong's Head is set upon a Plot: He pitches upon Habernfeld's for an Example; shews Otes it for a Fac Simile; Otes Cons his Lesson; Runs Over-Sea a∣mong the Iesuites; Finds the Old Plot at Work Still; Brings back Word on't: And Then, Out comes the Counterpart, in a Narrative to make All Good. It is here further to be Noted, that Tong was the Domi∣nus Fac Totum all this while; and Otes but the Tool that he wrought withall. In Plain English, there was an Imposture Projected from the Beginning, and it pass'd through the whole Train, and Conduct of the History, from One End to the Other. Tong Manag'd it; Otes Swore to't; and the Lines of the Design were drawn from Habernfeld's Modell. It rests upon Me now, to Prove what I have said; That is to say, that Tong was all the way a-gog upon a Plot; The Master Operator in the Late Pretended Popish Plot; That Habernfeld's was the Original, from whence he took his Copy; and that Otes'es Office in't, was only That of Lung's in the Alchymist to Blow the Bellows.

I find under Tong's Own Hand, in the Copy of an Enformation Given by Him to the House of Commons, as follows.

I have in my Wandring, fall'n into some Acquaintance with Dr Beal of Yeovel in Somersetshire;* a Man known to many of This House. He Strongly Alarm'd me, and from his Experience of the Troubles the Jesuits and Other Papal Emissaries gave the Wise Senators of Venice, whilst he Resided there with Sr H. W. in the Interdict of That State: He Concluded, that though Both Honourable Houses, and his Majesty should Vnanimously Concurr, and put out all your Force, Page  53 You cannot prevent their Plot, &c. At my Parting from Him, and by his Advice, (as All a man of my Rank could do) I resolved to Oppose, Yearly and Quarterly, if pos∣sible, some Small Treatises in Print, to Alarum, and A∣waken his Majesty, and These Houses, &c.

He tells afterward, in the Same Paper,* of an Enformation he had from De la Marche, a French Mini∣ster; for whom he drew a Petition; and [how upon a Conference with him about what Bloud had discover'd to him, he came to Apprehend the Fire of London to be Papal, French, and Lovestein Plots, United or Con∣founded: In This London-Fire-Plot, (says he) Major General Lambert, (as he hath usually been call'd) was Design'd to Draw Forces together; in appearance Fanatique, but in the Bottom, Papal, to Divert, and Distract us, whilst the French should have Seiz'd, or Destroy'd our Naval, and Other Military Provisions in the Tower, River, and Carcass of the City, when her Citizens are Massacred, and Scar'd into the Country to their Relations. Now the Story of This same De la Marche, and Lambert was altogether News to Oates, and yet Trusty Titus, to Second his Principal; Tells the King in his Epistle to his Narrative, that Lambert was a Papist of above Thirty Years Standing.

He has it in Another of his Papers, that One Ed∣ward Price of Kempton in Herefordshire, a Sadler, had for some Months, or Years, made Holsters and Sad∣dles for the Popish Gentry of those Parts, and for some Persons such a Proportion, as gave him suspicion that they were about to Raise some Troups of Horse, for some Dis∣loyal, and Wicked Design. And so he goes-on Inferring the Likelyhood of a Plot because the Protestant Gentry did not buy Saddles, and Holsters too, as well as the Popish Gentry.

Page  54The Paper above bears the Title of [Dr Tong's Short Narrative and Apology for his Book call'd the Mas∣sacre,] which Pamphlet of his, is Dedicated To the Ho∣nourable theCommittee of the House of Commons appointed for the Examination of the Popish Conspiracies. And it is Entitled [Dr. Tong's Relation of the General Massacre Intended and Plotted by the Papists, and brought▪ into Par∣liament by his Direction, and Assistance. fol. 1.] He calls This Paper, in his Epistle, [A Plain Relation of the First Discovery of the Popish-Plotted-Conspiracy for Sub∣verting the Government and Religion, and Massacring the People of England, and Other his Majesties Domi∣nions; and the Assassinating of his Royal Person, &c.] Now the short of the Bus'ness was This. One Mr Boyer of Herefordshire, Arrests Green, a Weaver of the same County, and Green Swears a Plot against him. Tong meets Green, with a Complaint in his Mouth, in the Court of Requests; Advises him to Present it to the Committee for Suppressing of Popery; Takes his Enformation; Draws him up a Petition, with Arti∣cles; and puts it into the Hand of a Zelous Member of the House to Promote it. This was it which Tong calls Laying the Foundation of the Discovery of This Plot, and the bringing of it into Parliament, with One Witness Present to Attest it. fol. 7.

The Enformation was so Trivial, that Green Him∣self Complains, [he was never yet Examin'd upon Oath, though he attended the Secret Committee Several Times. fol. 8.] And so Tong got Green to Swear his Depositions afterward, May. 12. 1679. before a Ma∣ster of Chancery; to remain in Testimony for a Perpetual Memorial. Now This was no other then a Tacit Charge, of either Negligence, or Disaffection upon the Committee: In whose Vindication I shall adventure to say; that if the Weaver had not been Page  55 Curs'd in his Mothers Belly, he could never have fail'd, at That Time of the Day, of getting himself Adopted into the Order of the Kings Witnesses, when, perchance, he was the Only Candidate for That Honour, that ever receiv'd a Repulse;] Even Eustace Commins Himself not Excepted.

The Doctor sets forth in Another Paper of his, call'd [Dr Tong's Case and Request] the Same Thing over again, and withall, [that he had been at Extra∣ordinary, and to Him Great Charges, in Searching-out Evidences of This Plot before it's Full Discovery; but more Especially, before Mr Otes'es Discovery, in Attending, Solliciting, Promoting and Expediting it, &c.]

I am gotten here into so Copious, and Tiresome a Subject, that a man must e'en Write in his Sleep to go thorough with it: But there needs no more to lay open the Doctor's Weak side, then to Consider the Fire he took upon This Freak. Who but Hee, to set-up for a Discoverer, both Out of Parliament, and In Parliament? Dr Beale sets Tong a Scribling: Tong puts it about, and sets De la Marche, Green and Others, a Petitioning; and who but He again, in fine, to Pen their Narratives, Enformations, and Articles; and to do the Office of Sollicitor General to the Whole Party! Who, I say, but Dr Tong, still, to make-out the Po∣pish Conspiracy! The Fires of London, Wapping, South∣wark, &c. The Murder of Godfrey, and All sorts of Popish Assassinations, Massacres and Invasions; Past, Present, and to Come! Nothing, in short, came A∣miss to him.

Order'd that Dr. Tong and Mr. Otes be Summon'd to Attend the Bar of This House at Four a Clock in the Afternoon,* to give an Account Touching Page  56 the Plot; and the Conspiracy, &c. Commons Journal, Oct. 25. 1678.

Order'd that Dr. Tong do Attend again to morrow Morning, to give an Account concerning the Fire of the City of London. Ib.

Here's a Manifestation, sufficient of the Hand, In∣terest, and Design, that Dr Tong had in the Plot: and the Encouragement he met withall, on the One side, was, in All Respects, Answerable to the Zeal he Ex∣press'd for the Promoting of it, on the Other; As will be further seen hereafter.

But yet the Wisdom of the Na∣tion was,* Certainly, never more over-shot, then in laying any sort of Stress upon the Credit of His Report. For, over and above the Absurdity of his Reasons, the Impotence of his Pas∣sions, and the Scandal of his Authorities, that lye Open for All the World to Judge of; he Cuts his Own Throat with his Own Hand, in a Petition to That very House of Commons that seem'd to Believe him; by laying Reasons Vnanswerable be∣fore them, why they Ought Not to Believe him, wherein he Declares, and Affirms, [that he had no Knowledge of any Person Charg'd, or Suspected to be in the Confederacy; Hardly of any One Po∣pish Gentleman in England.] So that here's a Popish Plot Undertaken to be Prov'd against so many Persons by Name; And That Proof Accepted for Current; when the very Accuser himself, Con∣fesses, and Declares, that he knows not so much as any One Conspirator. But an Infallible Vote Solves Impossibilities, and Reconciles Contradictions. A Plot is •esolv'd upon▪ A Plot there Is, and a Plot there Must be, though they fetch it out of the Page  57 Grave again, after so many Years Dead and Bury'd.

This is a Story so Silly, Flat, and Nauseous, that I should hold my self Oblig'd to beg a Publique Pardon for Exposing it, if it were not for These Two Vses of Application. First, to shew the Sense∣less Ground, and Foundation of All our Late Trou∣bles, and Distresses: And, Secondly, That there is No Tale, or Fable so Monstrous, or Incredible, that Prejudice, and Credulity shall not make to Pass for Gospel. This Plot, in fine, such as it is, was Tongs Plot; The Project of it, Copy'd-out from That of Habernfeld; and no more upon the Whole, then One Forgery Grafted upon Another. But This will be Best Clear'd, by Confronting the Two Narratives. The Parallel will be somewhat Large; but my hand is now In: 'tis a Matter of Moment that Depends upon't, and so the Case will the Better Bear it.